Digitally native? What about humanly native?

If you’ve read some of my older posts regarding the notion of ‘digital literacy’ or, gasp, ‘digital literacies‘ you may have an inkling as to where my mind may go when it reads the trendy, robot evoking, term ‘digital native’. It goes along the same path as Deven Black’s did in Where Are All the Digital Natives?

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Digital Natives. I imagine little robots with faces on computer screens gathered in a classroom, little beings educators have created in order to justify their own love of technology, and with the uncanny result of (sometimes) stripping learners of their humanness as labeling often does.

Personally, I’ve had enough of this talk of ‘digital natives’ and ‘digital literacies’ and ‘essential 21st century skills’ (I’ve had enough for a couple of years, even!). Lately and instead, I find myself rereading and remembering the words of Haim Ginott, Nel Noddings, and others and try to focus on curriculum within a framework of care and kindness as I teach my students both with and without technological tools, as I work with colleagues with different skill sets and comfort levels regarding technological tools as well.